How far should the drivers door open

[kiwiexcel]

My rhd 84 Excel's drivers door does not open as far as the passengers door.

Is this a design or safety feature?

[gusexcel]

neither open far enough, must be skinny Brits or something........

[Zag]

Mine is the other way around. Must depend on what day of the week it was built.

[Pete Boole]

IIRC there are two different types of "strap" that limit the door opening. Hopefully someone will chime in with more details!

Pete

[Hawaiis0]

The door open strap normally supported by a spring steel clip which fractures so may be missing, does indeed come in two lengths that I have seen. An easy mod if you can weld is to extend the strap 1cm by cutting the strap in two and weld in a extra piece.

[Johnwindwood]

Ours open at different angles, despite both having the same check strap and replacement beams. No idea why.

[tonypoll]

It's possible that the retaining strap has broken at the end. Someone opened my door violently and the round bit at the end of the retaining strap was snapped open. The door could then be opened such that it was only stopped by the wing body.
It was easy to get it welded and now both doors open the same.

[Lotus Jim]

The later vehicles (89MY onwards) from memory have doors that open wider than the earlier cars, due to customer complaints. Looking at the parts manual there are different part numbers for the early cars to the 89 MY cars.

A089U0735J = LH Door Beam Early Cars
A089U0736J = RH Door Beam Early Cars
C089U0735J = LH Door Beam 89 MY
C089U0736J = RH Door Beam 89 MY

There is also comments regarding the check strap for the later cars (one being a wire spring - 89MY, the other being a coiled spring?). There are also different hinge brackets according to the parts manual for the early and late cars.

You might have an early and a late door beam on the same car. I'm guessing it would be possible to retro fit the later door beams to early cars.

Jim

[Pete Boole]

(one being a wire spring - 89MY, the other being a coiled spring?)

I think the coiled spring is there as a "damper" within the mechanism on the early ones - I've got mine in the man-cave - I'll have a look if I'm down there.

Pete